Tagged: climate summit

Update from Doha, Qatar: As countries (somewhat ironically) gather in the petro-state of Qatar for the annual UN climate summit, it's even more apparent that economic considerations override concerns about severe environmental disruption, and even survival.

Co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network at IPS, Janet Redman, provides live updates from the UN Climate Summit, Doha, on the Green Climate Fund, a "Robin Hood" tax on financial transactions, protests, and more.

At a press conference in Durban, South Africa, officials from a diverse set of countries will join civil society leaders to call for innovative sources of finance, including a tax on financial transactions and a fee on emissions from maritime shipping, to be part of a deal in Durban which raises billions of dollars to help fill the Green Climate Fund.

“Solving the climate crisis is the most urgent challenge of our time,” said Redman. “Our economy, our jobs, our health and our security depend on climate stability. But over the past year the United States has been undermining the continuation of the world’s only global treaty to curb greenhouse gas pollution, and has blocked critical progress on a Green Climate Fund and long-term financial support for poor countries most impacts by global warming. The Obama administration must use the Durban talks to clean up its act. Our future depends upon it.”